24x7 water supply in pipeline

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government is mulling introduction of 24x7 water supply in Bhubaneswar. Both the Housing and Urban Development Department and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had an opening round of discussion in this regard with the visiting team of International Finance Corporation (IFC).IFC, an arm of the World Bank, is already in agreement with the BMC for energy efficient streetlighting in the Capital. It is willing to support the BMC in the introduction of round-the-clock water supply either through the PPP mode or through private participation.In fact, Bhubaneswar could take a cue from Nagpur which is the only urban body in the country to have privatised water supply. French company Veolia’s India arm has been handed over the water works by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. Although other ULBs have adopted PPP mode for water supply scheme, complete privatisation is rare in India.For the Capital, it could mean a radical change. Currently, water supply is mandated with Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO). “The goal is to provide water round-the-clock as against the current two-hour supply structure. Besides, the water quality is also another important aspect of the whole process for which we plan to send a team of PHEO and BMC to Nagpur to study the privatisation process,” Municipal Commissioner Vishal Dev said.What has drawn the Government’s attention towards the 24x7 water supply is the Nagpur case of improved quality of water with only a marginal rise in tariff. The total water supply in Bhubaneswar is close to 250 million litre a day but a large share goes waste because of leakage and pilferage. While the PHEO has been holding camps to get more connections, in large areas where pipe-water supply infrastructure is absent, residents have to sink bore-wells to meet the requirement. The mindless sinking of bore-wells has impacted the groundwater table in the City.